Full-order, modified, reduced-order, and finite-time observer design for a solar thermal water heater system

The purpose of this thesis is to design a variety of full-order, modified, reduced-order, and finite-time observers for a solar thermal water heater system. The solar thermal system is first mathematically modeled and then transformed from its four thermal components into a familiar state space form. A variety of full-order, modified, reduced-order, and finite-time observers are constructed from this modeled transformed form to observe the two unobservable states of the solar thermal system residing in the heat exchanger box. Four theorems are created to construct the full-order, modified, reduced-order, and finite-time observers for existing mathematical systems in a similar form of the solar thermal system. A programed simulation is created for the solar thermal system model and for the full-order, modified, reduced-order, and finite-time observers to compare the results of the modeled system with those of the simulated data. The result show that the unobservable states of the solar thermal system can be estimated fairly closely to the modeled system by using a combination of the full-order, modified, reduced-order, and finite-time observers for different thermal conditions. In addition, the research shows that the observers created in this thesis can be used as an alternative to the one used in another solar thermal publication.